Two bombs have exploded at a military camp and a French-run uranium mine in two towns in north western Niger, officials say.
The bombers killed themselves and wounded a number of others in the attacks in the towns of Agadez and Arlit, Reuters reported.
French group Areva said 13 people at the uranium plant in Arlit were hurt.
Niger’s government blamed Mujao, a jihadist group from neighbouring Mali, French radio said.
Security was stepped up at Areva’s Arlit operation – one of the country’s biggest uranium mines – in February. Niger provides one-fifth of France’s uranium needs, according to French media.
Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou said French special forces had moved in to protect the site after dozens of hostages died when Islamist militants seized a gas plant in Algeria in January.
Five French workers were kidnapped from the Arlit mine by Islamist militants in 2010.
Four of them are still being held and it is believed they could be in northern Mali, close to where French troops were sent to oust al-Qaeda-linked militants in January.
Mujao (the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa) is a splinter group of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) operating mostly in northern Mali.
It says its objective is to spread jihad to West Africa rather than confine itself to the Sahel and Maghreb regions – the main focus of AQIM.
BBC.
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